Arkies in Trumpland

Also, Senate wises up to Dems strategy and more.

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Quote of the week

"Marijuana is still illegal under federal law and just because a state passes something doesn't make it legal under federal law. It only makes it legal under state law. But as we know, federal law trumps state law, so there are a lot of unanswered questions."

— Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin on Arkansas's new constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana. Governor Hutchinson has promised a good-faith effort to comply with voters' wishes and work is underway by his administration to establish the regulatory scheme necessary. A gold rush of would-be entrepreneurs and high-dollar lobbyists is also underway to carve off a piece of anticipated profits.

Arkies in Trumpland

A number of current and former Arkansans were among those who visited Trump Tower last week as the president-elect considered who to hire for top administration posts. On Friday, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and former Gov. Mike Huckabee were spotted. Cotton has been rumored to be a candidate for defense secretary. Huckabee was thought to be a leading contender for ambassador to Israel, but he dismissed those reports over the weekend. Later, on Fox News, he said he was under consideration for both a Cabinet and advisory role, but declined to elaborate. On Thursday, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was spotted at Trump Tower. "My interest is in helping the Trump administration," she told reporters. "Whether that's continuing on as the attorney general of Arkansas or [working] in the administration, then my ears are open." She's been rumored to be in consideration for an EPA position.

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Predictable

A subcommittee of the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission moved a proposed Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol to the public comment phase before a full committee vote and approval by the secretary of state.

A not-so-bold prediction: The monument will be approved. Secretary of State Mark Martin will move to install it as the legislature wishes. Various parts of the machinery will gum up sufficiently to block other monuments that have been proposed to recognize different faith and belief systems. Then the ACLU will sue. It will win, unless the Trump/Republican Senate makeover of the judicial system is sufficiently in place by then.

Senate wises up to Dem strategy

Two weeks ago, Democratic members of the Arkansas House of Representatives used House rules, which allow members to pick committee membership based on seniority, to potentially wield outsize influence. Despite having only 26 of 100 members, Democrats managed to secure an 11 to 9 majority on the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. Last week, when the Senate drew committee assignments, the Republican majority took steps to make sure Democrats couldn't stack committees in that chamber. The Senate, which is made up of nine Democrats and 26 Republicans, adopted a rule limiting minority party membership on standing committees to three. The standing committees — the important ones — have eight members. Democrats had an eye on the Education Committee. Democratic Sen. Joyce Elliott, an education stalwart, commented on Twitter after the rule change: "AR folks, you had better wake up to what's in store for education in AR. The rules weren't changed to pass progressive legislation."

School board member in blackface

A picture taken at Halloween of a white man dressed in blackface and holding a sign that read "Blak Lives Matter" [sic] was identified last week as Ted Bonner, a Blevins School Board member, by Blevins Superintendent Billy Lee. The state NAACP chapter and the Arkansas Education Association both called for Bonner to resign. Bonner is up for re-election in 2018; Lee said he had apologized. Blevins is a small community in Hempstead County. The school district has about 480 students, about 80 of them African American.

Also, drifting away from trump, Hudson's downfall at ASU and more.

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Next week a series of meetings on the use of technology to tackle global problems will be held in Little Rock by Club de Madrid — a coalition of more than 100 former democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world — and the P80 Group, a coalition of large public pension and sovereign wealth funds founded by Prince Charles to combat climate change. The conference will discuss deploying existing technologies to increase access to food, water, energy, clean environment, and medical care.

Plus, recipes from the Times staff.

Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) was on "Capitol View" on KARK, Channel 4, this morning, and among other things that will likely inspire you to yell at your computer screen, he said he expects someone in the legislature to file a bill to do ... something about changing the name of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

So fed up was young Edgar Welch of Salisbury, N.C., that Hillary Clinton was getting away with running a child-sex ring that he grabbed a couple of guns last Sunday, drove 360 miles to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C., where Clinton was supposed to be holding the kids as sex slaves, and fired his AR-15 into the floor to clear the joint of pizza cravers and conduct his own investigation of the pedophilia syndicate of the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

There is almost nothing real about "reality TV." All but the dullest viewers understand that the dramatic twists and turns on shows like "The Bachelor" or "Celebrity Apprentice" are scripted in advance. More or less like professional wrestling, Donald Trump's previous claim to fame.